Showing titles in Biology

In his articles and in best-selling books such as The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan has established himself as one of our most important and beloved writers on modern man's place in the natural world. A new literary classic, Second Nature has become a manifesto not just for gardeners but for environmentalists everywhere.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK ONE OF GQ's TOP 50 BOOKS OF LITERARY JOURNALISM IN THE 21st CENTURY The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science's great hope in the...

Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common but largely unnoticed element of the natural world. Gathering Moss is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites listeners to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses.

For the past 17 years, the author, a PhD in life sciences, has studied the amino acid glycine and its effects on the human body. This research has made clear to him that due to the typical Western diet, virtually all Americans suffer from an insufficient level of glycine, and this has resulted in a misunderstanding by the medical community of the natural function of inflammation as a proper response to injury. Dr Brind has found that bodies in the glycine-deficient state typically develop inappropriate or excessive—and sometimes fatal—inflammation in response to a variety of physical or...

Unlock the science of you-at-your-best with Powerhouse Peptides for Women Over 30! This beginner's guide pulls back the curtain on nature's most potent messengers — short chains of amino acids known as peptides — and shows you exactly how to harness their regenerative magic for radiant skin, lean muscle, balanced hormones, and boundless energy. I also discuss bioregulators, which are loved within the peptide community. And I go over what I consider the Four Key Pillars of Health.

Hormones animate every aspect and every moment of our lives, controlling our milestone moments as well as our day-to-day emotions and behaviour. Dr Saira Hameed is one of the UK's leading endocrinologists and in Signals she invites us into her clinic to see the lives interrupted by misfiring hormones and how fixing the problem recalibrates a life. We sit beside Dr Hameed as she hears stories from spirit-sapping exhaustion to agonising infertility, absent libido to frenzied disorientation. Signals takes us on a journey inside our bodies to reveal the spectacular endocrine life force at work.

What is the most important biological process that occurs on Earth? You might immediately think of respiration: all organisms have to respire in order to release energy. But all complex organisms require oxygen to respire and where does the oxygen come from? After all, as far as we know we are the only planet in the solar system with elemental oxygen in our atmosphere. The answer is that all the oxygen on Earth is made by the process of photosynthesis; performed by plants and blue-green algae. Life would not exist on this planet as we know it; without photosynthesis. In addition, all the ...

A hilarious, insightful, and wildly entertaining tour of the body you’re currently sitting in. Have you ever wondered why your joints click, your stomach argues with you, your brain panics at 3 a.m., or your spine seems permanently offended? Do you suspect—correctly—that your body was assembled by evolution in a hurry, using leftover parts, bad decisions, and hope? This is the book for you. In A Short History of the Human Body, D.M. Buckland delivers a wonderfully irreverent, surprisingly educational journey through everything that makes you… you. Equal parts science, storytelling, ...

Dive into the greatest story never told—until now. From Stardust to Cells takes you on an awe-inspiring journey that spans billions of years, exploring the profound mystery of life's origins. Discover how the very elements that make up your body were forged in the heart of distant stars before being scattered across the cosmos, setting the stage for the emergence of life on Earth. This captivating eBook lays out the evidence-based chemical framework that seeks to unravel the origins-of-life problem. In Chapter 1, it establishes the boundary between living and nonliving systems, setting ...

Most Americans have been eating genetically modified (GM) foods for more than a decade. Around three-quarters of processed food that is currently produced in America contains some GM ingredients. This includes such everyday foods as crackers, breakfast cereals, and vegetable cooking oils. Almost everything that contains soy or corn: including the very commonly used high fructose corn syrup, has been genetically modified. This book concentrates on the use of GM crops, that is plants. It does not deal with GM animals; that is a different debate and I don't wish to touch on it here. ...

The Ancestor's Tale is a pilgrimage back through time - a journey on which we meet up with fellow pilgrims as we and they converge on our common ancestors. Chimpanzees join us at about six million years in the past, gorillas at seven million years, orangutans at 14 million years, as we stride on together, a growing band. The journey provides the setting for a collection of some 40 tales.

Brought to you by Penguin. A dazzlingly original, lyrical and epic encounter with the Earth as it used to be What would it be like to visit the ancient landscapes of the past? To experience the Jurassic or Cambrian worlds, to wander among these other lands, as creatures extinct for millions of...

In Slime we'll meet the algae innovators working toward a sustainable future: from seaweed farmers in South Korea, to scientists using it to clean the dead zones in our waterways, to the entrepreneurs fighting to bring algae fuel and plastics to market. Ruth Kassinger takes listeners on an around-the-world, behind-the-scenes, and into-the-kitchen tour. Whether you thought algae was just the gunk in your fish tank or you eat seaweed with your oatmeal, Slime will delight and amaze with its stories of the good, the bad, and the up-and-coming.

Enticingly read by the author, Philip Ball. 'An essential primer on humanity’s ongoing quest to understand the secrets of life . . . Excellent . . . Ball is a terrific writer.' – Adam Rutherford, The Guardian A cutting-edge new vision of biology that proposes to revise our concept of what...

In the tradition of Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking environmental classic Silent Spring, an award-winning entomologist and conservationist explains the importance of insects to our survival, and offers a clarion call to avoid a looming ecological disaster of our own making. Drawing on thirty...

This program is read by the author. Seven Deadly Sins will explore the underlying nature of the seven deadly sins, their neuroscientific and psychological basis, and their origin in our genes. Gluttony. Greed. Sloth. Pride. Envy. Lust. Anger. These are The Seven Deadly Sins, the vices of...

The Biophilia Effect celebrates our interconnection with nature and shows how to deeply engage the natural world wherever you live to dramatically improve your health. This unabridged audio presentation shares fascinating biomedical research into nature’s healing effects on our bodies...

For the first time ever, Eastern and Western Bird Song audio guides from the famed team of Donald and Lillian Stokes will be available in one comprehensive box set with new premium packaging. An incredible 923 species from all of North America are included in this marvelous audio companion to...

Who can forget the sense of wonder with which they discovered the creatures of the deep? In this vibrant hymn to the sea, Callum Roberts - one of the world’s foremost conservation biologists - leads listeners on a fascinating tour of mankind’s relationship to the sea, from the earliest traces of water on Earth to the oceans as we know them today. In the process, Roberts looks at how the taming of the oceans has shaped human civilization and affected marine life. Like Four Fish and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, The Ocean of Life takes a long view to tell a story in which each one of us has a role to play.

Little more than 100 years ago, maps of the world still boasted white space: places where no human had ever trod. Within a few short decades the most hostile of the world's environments had all been conquered. Likewise, in the 20th century, medicine transformed human life. Doctors took what was routinely fatal and made it survivable. As modernity brought us ever more into different kinds of extremes, doctors pushed the bounds of medical advances and human endurance. Extreme exploration challenged the body in ways that only the vanguard of science could answer.